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Updated: Oct 21, 2025

Generation of Prostate Cancer Patient Derived Xenograft Models from Circulating Tumor Cells
Published on: October 20, 2015
Inside prostate cancer news from the 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium
Roberto Iacovelli1, Serena Astore1, Chiara Ciccarese1,2
1Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli Irccs, Rome, Italy.
Background:
Prostate cancer (PC) is a heterogeneous disease that requires a personalized treatment approach for proper patient management.
Aim:
We analyzed a selected overview of the most important news recently presented at the 2021 ASCO genitourinary cancer symposium.
Results:
In particular, we focused on the identification of predictive biomarkers as potential targets for therapy. Molecular signatures of increased T cell activity, proliferation, and hormone dependence were associated with greater probability of response to apalutamide in non-metastatic CRPC. Pathogenic variants of DDR genes mutations detected with circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis, which had a high concordance with tumor tissue analysis, might represent a useful way for selecting mutated patients for poly (adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors therapy. Loss of PTEN could be a target for ipatasertib (a pan-AKT inhibitor) associated with abiraterone in mCRPC patients.
Conclusions:
The 2021 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium significantly contributed to the complex research goal of intimately understanding PC carcinogenesis with the ultimate aim of improving patient outcomes.
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